Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate.

40-H

At last year’s SAFE show, I entered Cedar in the showmanship class, so she could go for High Point. Not having the benefit of a rural upbringing, I had never participated in this particular class and I did not understand the rhyme or reason of it. The closest I had come was watching someone do it once in a show at Donida – and after floundering through it with Cedar, I had no intention of ever doing it again.

Yet when Jaime said she was short on handlers for the young horses, I realized there was no away around it – since the point was to show of the horses, we could have to enter as many in-hand classes as possible.

So this year I decided that I would at least do some homework before the show. Jaime tempered the pressure with the reminder that not too many people would be in the over-the-hill division.

With that cheery reminder that I was entering the years where learning gets harder – something to do with deflating brain cells and faulty wiring – and a link Jaime provided to some video tutorials from the University of Kentucky Extension Program, I entered the world of 40-H.

Sometime yesterday, as I was practicing “two strides across, then toes towards your horse’s hooves,” I had flashbacks to attempting the foxtrot in high school PE classes, partnered with some nameless boy with sweaty palms, shoes squeaking on the gym floor.

I looked at my dance partner now. Yes, life is better after forty. I get to choose my own partner, he is younger and better looking, and the excruciating self-consciousness of high school is just a distant memory.

Besides, some of this stuff is useful… and I thought it was just about the bling before, but now I see that it will come in handy for photographing horses and doing videos, things I seem to be busy with all the time. Who knew?

Brave talk aside, I don’t want to be alone out there in the ring. Anyone else for 40-H? Please show up at FFrontier Park in Graham for the SAFE show. The showmanship classes are usually first, so you’ll have to come early, though.

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate.